Thursday, July 7, 2016

Modern
day youngsters may not really understand many a things – one of that is the
importance of watch ~ a wrist watch was a luxury till about 5 decades ago… only
college-goers had the privilege of wearing wrist watches ~ HMT (Hindusthan Machine Tools}
ruled the roost… the most common Q that one to put to the other on the road was
‘may I know what the time is ?’ ~ now the Q is ‘where are you ?’
[everyone talking on mobile on street; perhaps mostly asking
the other person as to where he / she is ?]

Alphabet-owned
Google is planning to take another step toward becoming a genuine hardware
company later this year with the release of its own smartwatch. The search
engine giant plans to take on Apple Watch directly, with not one, but two
Android Wear smartwatches that will be deeply integrated with Google Assistant.

It is not mere
watches ~ but a technological marvel with ability to pay for our food and
monitor our physical activities made possible by the myriad sensors packed into
their tiny metal bodies. These sophisticated sensors are often trotted out as
evidence that they’re the next big thing in mobile technology, but one
unintended side effect of their sensitive internals could be the gradual
chipping away of your digital privacy. Collecting
data unawares and using it for gains, is fast becoming sophisticated crime.

Computer crime, or
cybercrime, is crime that involves a computer in any form and a network. The
computer may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the
target. Such crimes may harm Nations
financially as also its security. There
are also problems of privacy when confidential information is intercepted or
disclosed, lawfully or otherwise. There are varied estimates on the value of
loss caused by cyber crimes – with solutions few and far between. Most measures show that the problem of
cybercrime continues to worsen. There is insurance too, protecting against monetary
losses caused by cyber crimes.

According to The
New York Post newspaper, Polyakov admitted that he had hacked into accounts
belonging to the ticket-selling website StubHub and had used the information he
derived to buy 3,500 tickets worth $1.6 million for different concerts and
sporting events. He is looking at 4-12 years in prison. Polyakov has registered
his preference to be deported once he has served his prison term. Polyakov was
arrested in 2014 in Barcelona from where he was extradited to the United
States. Nine other fraudsters were identified in the case, some of whom have so
far managed to evade arrest.

In the
modern World, complaints galore about cyber crimes ~ though never imagined that
Sibling rivalry between the States would result in a cyber crime. It is the newly formed State of Telengana, telling
Centre that Andhra is resorting to unethical means to attract investments.

Times
of India reports that Telangana
government on Tuesday levelled serious charges against the AP government
accusing the latter of thievery in a bid to boost its prospects of climbing up
in the Ease of Doing Business (EODB) ranking of the states. The industries
department of Telangana also lodged a complaint with the cyber crime wing of
the police accusing Andhra Pradesh government of stealing its online
application format for filing of cases as part of the EODB protocol. In
addition, state industries minister K T Rama Rao wrote a letter to Union
minister of commerce and industries Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday listing out
the violations and unethical practices of the AP government.

The
two sibling states have been wooing investors from both within and out of India
to set up industries and other employment and wealth creating ventures in the
two states. The EODB ranking is considered vital as it is given by the
department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), Government of India which
can be marketed as an official seal of approval of the amount of care and
assistance a state is willing to provide to an investor. The DIPP introduced
rankings to various states for implementing EODB norms to attract investments
and the states had till June 30 to submit replies to 340 questions on what the
states are doing to improve their EODB on the DIPP website. The DIPP , however,
extended the date till July 7 as there were some technical problems on the
website on June 28 and 29 and some states could not upload their replies. It,
however, said the reforms should have been implemented before June 30.
Telangana submitted replies for all 340 questions by June 30.

The
Telangana government alleged that the AP government stole its online
application prepared by its officials and after the chief secretary Rajiv
Sharma discussed this issue with the principal secretary of the industries
department Arvind Kumar, the government decided to initiate legal action
against those responsible for the theft. A high-level meeting was then held
chaired by the Rama Rao with the industry department officials. “The AP
government has been at the bottom of the rankings. The deadline for submission
of EODB questionnaire was extended by the Centre with a good intention but the
AP government misused it. As it is not possible to improve the EODB rankings in
a short time, the AP government has resorted to unethical and illegal means. The
blatant copying of the Telangana government's online application procedure is
an example,“ Arvind Kumar said.

Giving
examples of violation under Section 63 (B) of Copy Right Act, he said the
government had prepared a Commercial-Courts application and e-payment format on
June 28 and submitted it to DIPP . The AP government has not done the same till
the last day, i.e., midnight of June 30. After the DIPP extended the deadline,
the AP government copied the application form from the Telangana website and
submitted it to DIPP .They even copied the spelling mistakes that were part of
the Telangana government's submission, it is stated !!